IMO the web makes the traditional publishing bottleneck obsolete -- including the need for peer review, which is mostly just a crude method of indicating endorsement.

Perhaps researchers should now publish their work on Facebook, Google+ or other votable media, and their institutions should grant tenure based on the number of "Like" votes they get. ;)

David

On 04/23/2013 02:02 PM, ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program wrote:
Maybe I should rephrase "rating and grading" and the term mental narrow
focus reflects the fact that scientists and researchers when
concentrating on their academic work focus on a small area of all
scientific endeavors. There is a subtle difference between mental narrow
focus and narrow mindedness.

There needs to be a way to gauge the operations of journal publishers
whether they be open access or traditional peer-reviewed academic to
know if they are bona fide in the first place. Librarians in general are
the best people to keep track of what is out there available in journals.

But it is the scientists and researchers that can spot the good and weed
out the bad journals.

Because these are dire times in terms of financial resources available
for librarians and scientists alike and mala fide companies and
individuals will seize the opportunities to hawk their "new and less
expensive open access or hybrid business model" journals and scientific
conferences and events.

It is just the newest category of scams to hit the Internet and markets
and it will not go away.

Caveat emptor, mundus vult decipi.
Milton Ponson
GSM: +297 747 8280
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for
sustainable development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT
tools for NGOs worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and
repositories of data and information for sustainable development

This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the
system manager. This message contains confidential information and is
intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named
addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Gannon Dick <[email protected]>
*To:* "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; Phillip Lord
<[email protected]>
*Cc:* ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <[email protected]>;
"[email protected]" <[email protected]>; semantic-web <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Tuesday, April 23, 2013 9:35 AM
*Subject:* Re: predatory journals and conferences article in NY Times

+1
The Nominations in the Semantic Asset Utilization Category:
Best catch: Milton
Best Intelligent Life in Journalism Discovery: NOAA "New York Times"
Best Village Idiot Impersonation, don't believe it for a minute: Phil
"I'm just a ..."
Best Monte Carlo Simulation Marksmanship: Leon "... Mission Creep"

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Leon Derczynski <[email protected]>
*To:* Phillip Lord <[email protected]>
*Cc:* ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <[email protected]>;
"[email protected]" <[email protected]>; semantic-web <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Tuesday, April 23, 2013 6:05 AM
*Subject:* Re: predatory journals and conferences article in NY Times

IIRC, impact factor was only ever intended as an heuristic for
librarians when making marginal decisions over which journals to
subscribe to on behalf of their institution. Everything else is but
mission creep.

All the best,


Leon


On 23 April 2013 12:38, Phillip Lord <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:


    It's high time universities stopped judging academics by *where* they
    have published rather than *what*.

    We already have a form of rating for journals. It's called impact
    factor. It doesn't work, because judging papers by their place of
    publication is nonsensical.

    Linked data and semantic web technologies provide opportunities, I
    think, to handle the metadata associated with scientific publication, to
    represent the knowledge in academic publications, and to do so without
    the necessity for a centralised authority.

    But, then I am a researcher with a metanl narrow focus, so what do I
    know?

    Phil

    ProjectParadigm-ICT-Program <[email protected]
    <mailto:[email protected]>> writes:
     > This is a problem which manifests itself in every discipline and
    it preys on
     > basic human needs for recognition. The current publishing world
    of academia
     > itself is to blame partially.
     >
     > Because in each field of science scientists and researchers
    usually have a
     > short list of peer-reviewed journals and conferences in their
    mental narrow
     > focus, only librarians typically have a (often not much) better
    overview of
     > available reputable journals and conferences in respective fields.
     >
     > It is high time for a global registry of scientific publishers
    and their
     > respective journals and a form of rating and grading them.
     >
     > Linked data and semantic web technologies provide opportunities
    to create such
     > rating and grading systems, and maybe an item for a separate W3C
    Community
     > Group?
     >
     >
     > Milton Ponson
     > GSM: +297 747 8280
     > PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
     > Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
     > Project Paradigm: A structured approach to bringing the tools for
    sustainable
     > development to all stakeholders worldwide by creating ICT tools
    for NGOs
     > worldwide and: providing online access to web sites and
    repositories of data
     > and information for sustainable development
     >
     > This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
    intended
     > solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
    addressed. If
     > you have received this email in error please notify the system
    manager. This
     > message contains confidential information and is intended only
    for the
     > individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not
     > disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.

    --
    Phillip Lord,                           Phone: +44 (0) 191 222 7827
    Lecturer in Bioinformatics,             Email:
    [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
    School of Computing Science, http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/phillip.lord
    Room 914 Claremont Tower,               skype: russet_apples
    Newcastle University,                   twitter: phillord
    NE1 7RU




--
Leon R A Derczynski
Research Associate, NLP Group

Department of Computer Science
University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 211 Portobello
Sheffield S1 4DP, UK

+45 5157 4948
http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~leon/ <http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/%7Eleon/>





Reply via email to